Total bids received amounted to €2.06 billion which was 4.12 times the amount on offer. The Treasury Bills, which have a maturity of three months, were sold at a yield of 0.55%.

Owen Callan, from Danske Markets, said today’s sale marks the best performance of an auction in the NTMA T-Bill programme to date. He said it represents another important step towards fully normalised market funding in 2013.

”With positive momentum and yesterday’s credit decision from Fitch, we may see some new investor names return to the Irish market in the near future,” the added.

Ireland successfully returned to the markets over the summer and the 2014 funding cliff has now more or less been demolished. Additionally, it was reported by Bloomberg in late Novembre that the NTMA may be considering issuing a long-term USD-denominated bond, via syndication, at some stage over the next few months, with US investor sentiment for Irish risk assets remaining exceptionally positive in recent months.